Ep. 298 | The Layers That Build The Muppets Special w/ Albertina Rizzo & Kelly Younger

The Screenwriting Life with Meg LeFauve and Lorien McKenna

Meg LeFauve & Lorien McKenna

Tv & Film

4.9 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 14 May 2026

⏱️ 62 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The Muppets are beyond iconic and have over 50 years of canon to draw from. Meg chats with showrunner of The Muppets Special, Albertina Rizzo & writer on the special, and returning guest, Kelly Younger, on their approach, execution, how they ran the writers room, and so much more. They also dive into building sketch comedy, variety shows and Meg asks a few questions about the latest season of Jury Duty for Albertina and, Kelly is a fairy tale expert! So, a top 3 fairy tales for writers was needed. Looking for more support on your writing journey? Join Meg and Lorien inside ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠TSL Workshops⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Episode Links: For more information on Flipping The Screen and to sign up for the workshops, email flippingthescreen@gmail.com Check out the ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠TSL merch shop⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ TSL on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ | ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠TikTok⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ The Screenwriting Life is produced and edited by ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Alex Alcheh.⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey everyone, welcome back to the Screenwriting Life. I'm Meg Lofoe.
0:03.0	Today we are talking with two of the writers of the recent Muppets show special,
0:07.0	Albertina Rizzo and Kelly Younger, about creating the special as well as their own incredible solo work.
0:13.0	Albertina is an Emmy-nominated writer producer from New York City.
0:17.0	She was staffed on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, where she became one of the most iconic writers. Recently, she has been on staff for a myriad of comedies, including Shiny Bale, American Auto, and most recently, Jury Duty Company Retreat, which is out now on Amazon. And of course, she show run The Muppet Special. Kelly Younger is a returning guest for TSL. He is a screenwriter, playwright, Emmy-nominated producer,
0:38.0	story consultant, fairy tale expert. And as he says, yeah, that's a real thing. In addition to the
0:43.2	most recent Muppet special, Kelly was on the story team for Muppets Now and the Muppets Haunted Mansion.
0:48.7	He also wrote the Amazon MGM movie Candy Cain Lane, starring Eddie Murphy, which became one
0:53.4	of the biggest hits on Amazon Prime
0:55.2	in years. Kelly and Appartina, welcome to the show. Thank you. Thanks. I can't wait to talk all about
1:02.6	the Muppets and jury duty and fairy tales and all kinds of fun stuff. But first, we're going to talk
1:08.6	about adventures in screenwriting, a la, how is your week.
1:12.4	Sometimes it's about the life and emotion, but today I got notes, myself and my husband
1:17.8	who's my writing partner.
1:19.1	We got notes from the studio on a project.
1:21.7	And here's what was amazing about it.
1:24.1	A week before they had time to get on the phone with us, they set the table and an email,
1:28.2	which I like. Give me a little something. And basically, it started. We really love the setting.
1:35.0	Oh. I think it's a wonderful email, by the way. I think it's perfect. Because it's a way to say to us,
1:40.8	get ready. We're going to blow it up without saying, get ready. But to me, I'm like, okay, we're blowing this up.
1:48.2	Because if you like the setting and the potential, that's what we pitched, whatever.
1:52.8	So that week gave me time to process that.
	...

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